NEW  YORK  : 
CHARLES  S.  HAMILTON  &  CO.,  PRINTERS,  61  CEDAR  ST.,  N.  Y. 

^^■J    .     '     "  18  82.    •  . 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"Sver'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


fi.   j^OUSE    WITH    A  j^ISTORY 

COL,  ROGER  MORRIS' 

FINE  OLD  MANSION. 


THE  BIOGRAPHY  OF  ONE  OF  THE  OLDEST  RESIDENCES  ON  MAN- 
HATTAN ISLAND — FORFEITED  TO  THE  STATE,  A  SOURCE 
OF  PROFIT  TO  THE  ASTORS,  AND  STILL  STAND- 
ING TO  TELL  ITS  STORY. 


It  is  a  treat  to  see  a  house  occasionally  that  is  a  little  dif  * 
ferent  from  its  neighbors.  One  that  has  not  a  brown-stone 
front  and  high  brown-stone  steps,  and  a  brown-stone  rail- 
ing, and  a  brown-stone  area,  and  the  face  of  a  brown -stone 
servant  girl  looking  ont  of  the  basement  window.  There 
are  a  few  houses  in  New  York  that  were  not  cast  in  this 
mould,  but  very  few  ;  and  whenever  we  see  one  it  is  a  re- 
•lief  to  the  eyes  to  stop  and  look  at  it.  If  it  happens  to  be 
a  very  old  house,  with  one  or  two  walls  a  little  out  of 
plumb  and  big  dormer  windows  on  the  roof,  so  much  the 
better,  for  then  it  brings  a  suggestion  of  big,  airy  rooms 
and  other  luxuries  our  ancestors  enjoyed  before  what  we 
call  the  "  modern  conveniences''  were  invented.  These  mod- 
ern conveniences  consist,  in  very  large  part,  of  rooms  a 
trifle  larger  than  lock- boxes  in  the  Post-office,  entries  whose 
narrowness  is  equaled  only  by  their  shortness,  and  five  or 
six  families  trying  to  live  in  the  space  that  would  com- 


2 


fortably  hold  one.  We  see  so  few  fine  old-fashioned  places 
in  New  York  that  we  are  more  likely  than  most  people  to 
appreciate  one  when  we  do  find  it.  The  old  homes  of 
nearly  all  the  wealthy  old  families  have  gone  to  the  dogs. 
Some  have  been  torn  down,  some  have  been  changed  into 
apartment  houses,  some  are  business  places.  There  is 
hardly  one  left  just  as  it  stood  half  a  century  ago.  The 
thing  we  are  most  accustomed  to  is  the  flimsy  house  that 
was  put  up  yesterday,  and  that  will  be  pulled  down  to- 
morrow to  make  room  for  a  larger.  In  this  uncomfort- 
able and  unsettled  state  of  affairs  he  is  a  benefactor  who 
discovers  a  real  stately  old  mansion,  standing  to-day  just 
as  it  stood  nearly  a  century  ago,  inside  and  out,  with  no 
changes  but  those  made  by  old  Time.  So  much  the  better 
if  the  mansion  is  one  known  to  history,  and  if  its  broad 
rooms  have  sheltered  men  whose  names  we  venerate. 
There  is  at  least  one  such  mansion  still  standing  in  New 
York — standing  now  just  as  it  stood  in  the  days  we  read 
about  in  history,  filled  up  to  the  very  throat  with  furniture 
of  the  last  century,  that  loses  nothing  by  comparison  with 
our  own,  overflowing  with  bric-a-brac,  the  walls  hidden 
with  paintings.  Better  than  all,  still  occupied  by  the  same 
family  that  owned  it  when  Canal  street  was  a  very  good 
street,  but  rather  too  far  up  town. 

If  celebrity  had  the  same  bad  effect  upon  houses  that  it 
has  upon  some  men,  this  rare  old  house  would  stretch  itself 
up  several  feet  higher  and  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
its  neighbors.  But  it  does  not.  It  is  as  modest  as  it  is  grand 
and  stately  ;  as  kindly  and  inviting  as  some  fine  old  gen- 
tlemen with  cut-away  coat  and  gray  locks  ;  so  secure  in  its 
social  position  that  it  does  not  need  to  humiliate  everything 
around  it  to  make  its  own  greatness  felt.  It  is  a  house  with 
a  history.  No  story  of  the  Revolution  is  complete  without 
a  mention  of  it.  When  New  York  was  not  much  more 
than*  a  big  town,  it  stood  just  where  it  stands  now.  George 
Washington  once  lived  in  it,  in  those  stormy  times,  and 
laid  his  plans  of  battle.  Many  men  whose  names  are  part 
of  the  history  of  the  Eepublic  have  eaten  in  its  big  din- 


ing-room,  danced  on  its  smooth  parlor  floor,  and  slept  in 
its  airy  chambers.  In  its  drawing-room  a  hundred  Indians 
have  stood,  dressed  in  all  the  wild  grandeur  of  their  native 
costume,  and  consulted  with  the  great  chief  of  the  pale-faces. 
Then  when  the  war  was  over,  and  the  cannon  were  left  out 
in  the  fields  to  rust,  the  fine  old  house  became  a  place  of 
public  entertainment.  The  man  who  started  the  first  line 
of  stages  from  New  York  to  Boston  turned  it  into  a  hotel, 
and  advertised  that  the  octagon  room  in  which  the  Indians 
had  assembled  was  '"very  hapily  calculated  for  a  turtle 
party."  Confiscated  by  the  Government,  the  old  house,  by 
a  wonderful  combination  of  circumstances,  had  a  good  deal 
to  do  with  getting  together  the  nucleus  of  the  great  Astor 
fortune.  Then  it  went  into  the  hands  of  a  wealthy  French 
merchant,  who  brightened  up  its  rusty  parts  and  made  it 
once  more  a  fine  private  residence.  This  merchant  took  a 
ship  over  to  France,  loaded  it  down  with  fine  furniture  and 
paintings,  with  young  trees,  and  with  everything  lie  could 
buy.  to  ornament  his  house  and  grounds.  Some  of  the 
furniture  came  out  of  French  palaces,  and  is  quite  as  grand 
and  costly  as  the  finest  that  can  be  bought  at  the  present 
day.  This  furniture  still  stands  in  the  big  parlor  and  draw- 
ing-room, these  pictures  still  hang  upon  the  walls,  and 
these  trees  are  still  growing  in  the  spacious  grounds.  The 
house  stands  on  the  summit  of  Harlem  Heights.  For 
many  years  it  was  known  as  the  Roger  Morris  house,  but 
it  is  more  familiar  to  us  as  the  Jumel  mansion. 

The  grounds  about  this  grand  old  place  are  full  of  fruit 
trees,  and  when  the  writer  first  visited  them,  one  warm 
day  in  spring,  they  were  all  in  blossom.  They  looked  like 
so  many  great  snowballs,  and  smelled  like  vast  bunches  of 
violets.  By  the  side  of  the  house  some  of  Mme.  Jumel's 
descendants  were  amusing  themselves  with  archery. 
Wbeie  the  apple  blossoms  and  the  new  green  leaves  did 
not  hide  everything  from  sight,  there  were  delightful  views. 
New  York  City  lies  at  the  foot  of  this  hill  :  the  Harlem 
River  flows  beside  it  :  not  far  away  is  the  Sound,  and 
Brooklyn  can  be  seen,  and  some  of  the  Long  Island  towns. 


4 


But  however  grand  the  view  may  be,  it  is  not  the  view  that 
is  the  chief  attraction  of  the  place.    It  is  easy  to  imagine 
on  these  bright  spring  days  a  warm  spring  afternoon,  and 
the  crowded  people  in  the  city  jostling  each  other  in  their 
efforts  to  reach  fresh  air  and  sunshine  and  quiet.    Oat  of 
this  hubbub,  out  from  the  shadows  of  high  brick  walls, 
out  of  the  crush  and  bustle  and  busy  racket  of  the  City,  to 
walk  suddenly  into  this  yard  of  some  acres'  extent,  with 
apple  blossoms  and  blue  sky  overhead,  with  soft  green 
grass  under  foot,  with  not  a  sound  to  be  heard  except  the 
laughter  of  the  archers  on  the  lawn  ;  with  nobody  to  crowd 
you,  nobody  to  disturb  you,  the  delightful  spring  perfume 
to  soothe  you,  is  about  as  near  fairyland  as  anything  to  be 
found  on  Manhattan  Island.    With  all  this  luxury  outside 
it  takes  a  pretty  good  interior  not  to  be  disappointing.  But 
there  is  nothing  disappointing  there.    The  house  is  one  of 
those  broad,  two-story  buildings  that  used  to  be  fashion- 
able, but  now  take  up  too  much  room  to  be  profitable.  It 
is  built  of  wood,  and  painted  white.    Nobody  who  has  ever 
visited  the  upper  part  of  the  City,  on  the  West  Side,  can 
fail  to  have  seen  it.    It  stands  on  the  top  of  a  high  hill  and 
can  be  seen  for  miles.     Go  up  the  West  Side  elevated  rail- 
road to  the  last  station,  and,  when  you  leave  the  platform, 
look  to  the  north-west,  and  it  is  the  highest,  largest,  most 
prominent  house  you  see.     It  has  a  slanting  roof,  with 
dormer  windows,  and  a  flat  space  on  top,  around  which  is 
a  substantial  railing.    From  this  place  on  top  of  the  house 
there  is  hardly  any  prominent  object  on  Manhattan  Island 
that  cannot  be  seen.    At  the  front  is  a  large  portico,  about 
half  the  width  of  the  house.    The  roof  of  this  portico  covers 
both  the  first  and  second  stories,  and  is  supported  by  four 
tall  pillars.    The  casing  of  the  front  door  is  handsomely 
carved  and  embellished,  and  immediately  over  it,  at  the 
second  story,  is  another  door,  instead  of  a  window,  that 
opens  upon  a  balcony.    In  the  rear  is  an  octagonal  wing, 
the  lower  story  of  which  is  the  drawing-room.    The  whole 
place  is  as  quiet  as  if  it  stood  on  the  summit  of  the  Adi- 
rondack's, though  it  is  only  five  minutes  walk  from  an  ele- 
vated railroad  station. 


5 


Entering  by  the  broad  front  door,  the  visitor  is  in  a  spa- 
cious hall  filled  with  curious  aud  useful  articles,  its  walls 
covered  with  old  paintings.  There,  on  the  left,  hangs  a 
life-size  portrait  of  Mme.  Jumel,  a  little  girl  standing  by 
her  side.  There  are  many  other  family  portraits,  all  done 
by  the  foremost  artists  of  that  time.  Here,  on  the  right, 
near  the  door,  is  a  tiny  table,  its  top  handsomely  inlaid. 
On  this  little  stand  a  celebrated  but  unorthodox  writer 
wrote  the  best-known  of  all  his  books.  Above  the  arch,  at 
the  rear  of  the  hall,  is  something  that  looks  like  the  Amer- 
ican coat-of-arms,  and  yet  does  not  look  like  it.  It  is  all 
complete,  with  the  exception  of  the  eagle.  It  was  bought 
in  Paris,  when  it  was  not  safe  to  parade  an  eagle  over  one's 
door-tops.  So  the  eagle  was  taken  out,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  ornament,  with  some  little  device  substituted,  was 
put  where  it  still  remains.  To  the  left,  on  entering  the 
hallway,  is  the  door  leading  to  the  parlor.  This  is  a  large 
room,  handsomely  furnished,  and  the  walls  are  ornament- 
ed with  the  works  of  some  of  the  old  masters.  The  fur- 
niture is  of  mahogany,  and  the  carpet  still  in  a  good  state 
of  preservation,  though  it  has  lain  so  many  years,  and  been 
trod  by  several  generations.  Everything  in  this  room  is  in 
the  style  of  half  a  century  or  more  ago,  except  a  few  paint- 
ings that  have  been  added.  They  have  a  more  modern  ap- 
pearance, for  the  style  of  paintings  changes,  as  well  as 
other  styles.  At  the  end  of  the  corridor  a  folding-door 
opens  into  the  drawing-room,  which  is  on  the  first  floor  of 
the  octagon  extension.  Here,  too,  is  all  the  old  furniture 
just  as  it  stood  many  years  ago,  including  a  number  of  ar- 
ticles that  people  of  the  present  generation  would  hardly 
know  the  use  of.  The  chairs  and  sofas,  all  brought  from 
Paris,  are  upholstered  in  delicate  light  satin,  and,  with 
their  mahogany  frames,  are  almost  as  good  now  as  when 
they  were  first  made.  At  several  points  little  plaster  angels 
hang  from  the  ceiling,  supported  by  invisible  wires.  It 
was  in  this  room  that  Washington  held  a  consultation  with 
the  Indian  chiefs.  It  is  safe  to  suppose  that  he  felt  re- 
lieved when  he  bowed  the  last  one  out  and  locked  the  door, 


6 


for  they  were  none  too  friendly.  They  entered  the  house 
without  any  invitation,  so  the  story  goes,  and  it  was  at 
first  thought  that  their  intentions  were  hostile.  But  they 
said  they  only  wanted  to  "  have  a  talk  with  the  great 
chief."  The  dining-room  of  this  Morris  or  Jumel  mansion 
is  one  of  its  most  attractive  parts.  Indeed,  the  dining- 
room  of  any  house  is  an  attractive  place  to  a  man  with  a 
well-regulated  interior;  but  this  one  is  particularly  interest- 
ing. It  is  a  room  that  would  set  a  collector  of  bric-a-brac 
and  rare  china  wild  with  delight.  A  very  large  room,  it 
has  windows  on  two  sides — the  front  and  the  east.  It  is 
on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  hallway  upon  entering  the 
house.  The  back  end  of  the  room  is  entirely  taken  up 
with  a  great  old-fashioned  mahogany  sideboard  almost  big 
enough  for  a  modern  house.  There  is  no  new-fangled 
Frenchified  buffet  about  that;  it  is  a  genuine  old-time  side- 
board, every  inch  of  it.  And  every  bit  of  its  top  and  every 
one  of  its  many  shelves  is  loaded  down  with  rare  pieces  of 
plate,  tall  silver  ornaments,  and  scores  of  pieces  of  decorated 
chinaware.  Many  of  these  choice  bits  have  a  history.  Not 
a  few  of  them  are,  in  one  way  or  another,  connected  with 
distinguished  men,  and  could  tell  interesting  stories  if  they 
could  be  induced  to  talk.  One  side  of  the  dining-room, 
the  side  nearest  the  entry,  is  filled  by  a  mahogany  stand, 
made  up  of  half  a  dozen  or  more  shelves.  And  every  one 
of  these  shelves  is  as  full  as  it  can  hold  with  pretty  pieces 
of  plate  and  china,  all  old  and  rare.  The  big  mahogany 
dining  table,  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  is  both  broad  and 
long.  It  may  be  that  the  present  mistress  of  the  establish- 
ment, who,  with  great  kindness,  pointed  out  the  historical 
treasures  of  the  place  to  the  writer,  will  not  thank  him  for 
giving  to  the  public  a  minute  description  of  her  household 
arrangements,  but  pretty  things  certainly  ought  to  be  ad- 
mired, and  many  people  who  cannot  look  at  this  rare  old 
house  with  their  own  eyes  may  take  pleasure  in  looking  at 
it  through  somebody  else's. 

This  mansion  stands  on  some  of  the  highest  ground  on 
Manhattan  Island.    It  is  not  far  from  the  Hudson,  but 


7 


that  river  is  not  visible  on  account  of  the  .intervening  high 
land.  The  Harlem  River,  however,  may  be  seen  from  any 
part  of  the  grounds,  almost  its  entire  length,  from  above 
High  Bridge,  down  below  Randall's  Island.  Roger  Morris, 
the  original  owner  of  the  house,  was  a  younger  son  of 
Charles  Morris,  of  Wandsworth,  England,  and  was  born  in 
1727.  He  became  prominent  in  America  in  1761  as  an  aide 
on  the  staff  of  Gen.  Braddock,  and  was  wounded  in  the  at- 
tack upon  Fort  Duquesne.  He  was  an  intimate  acquaintance 
of  George  Washington  before  the  Revolution.  He  mar- 
ried Mary  Phillipse,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Beverly  Robinson,  and 
heiress,  in  her  own  right,  of  50,000  acres  of  land.  The 
wedding  was  celebrated  at  the  Phillipsburg  Manor-house, 
in  March,  1758.  In  1764  he  settled  in  this  historic  house, 
which  was  then  "near  New  York."  Washington  made 
this  house  his  head-quarters  during  the  active  campaign  on 
the  upper  part  of  Manhattan  Island.  "After  the  enemy 
had  taken  possession  of  the  first  American  line,"  a  histori- 
an writes,  "things  remained  quiet  for  an  hour  or  two.  In 
this  interval,  Gen.  Washington,  with  Gens.  Greene,  Put- 
nam, Mercer,  and  other  principal  officers,  came  over  the 
North  River  from  Fort  Lee,  and  crossed  the  island  to  the 
Morris  House,  whence  they  viewed  the  position  of  our 
troops  and  the  operations  of  the  enemy  in  that  quarter." 
The  British  troops  soon  afterward  took  possession  of  the 
very  spot  on  which  Washington  and  his  officers  had  stood. 
Some  accounts  say  that  they  had  not  been  gone  more  than 
fifteen  minutes.  Washington's  last  visit  to  this  house, 
during  the  war,  was  on  the  lGth  of  September,  1776.  He 
visited  it  under  more  pleasant  and  peaceful  circumstances 
several  years  later.  When  the  capture  of  Fort  Washington 
resulted  in  the  whole  island;  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
British,  the  Hessians  encamped  on  Harlem  Heights,  and 
Gen.  Knyphausen,  their  commander,  used  the  Morris 
House  as  his  headquarters  ;  and  it  continued  to  be  so  used 
by  the  Hessians  and  the  British  till  the  day  of  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  island— Nov.  25,  1783.  Notwithstanding  its 
long  occupation  by  the  military,  it  was  still  considered  "a 


s 


desirable  residence."  For  a  short  time  after  the  Revolution 
it  was  occupied  by  Dr.  Isaac  Led  yard.  In  June,  1785, 
Talmage  Hall,  who  had  just  started  a  line  of  stages  from 
New  York  to  Boston,  starting  from  the  old  City  Tavern,  at 
Broadway  and  Thames  Street,  leased  the  building  and 
opened  it  as  a  hotel,  making  it  the  first  stopping-place  on 
his  line,  and  inviting  parties  from  the  city  to  visit  it.  The 
act  of  attainder,  passed  by  the  New  York  Legislature  in 
1779,  included,  among  those  named,  Col.  Robert  Morris 
and  his  wife.  When  the  British  evacuated  this  city,  Col. 
Morris  and  his  wife  went  to  England,  where  they  spent 
the  remainder  of  their  lives.  Col.  Morns  died  on  the  13th 
of  September,  1794,  at  the  age  of  67  years,  and  his  wife 
survived  him  many  years,  living  till  July,  1825,  when  she 
was  96  years  old.  It  was  not  till  after  her  death  that  the 
old  question  of  the  attainder  act,  and  its  effect  upon  her 
heirs,  came  up.  It  was  claimed,  on  the  part  of  the 
heirs,  that  there  had  been  a  secret  ante-nuptial  settle- 
ment, which  could  not  be  affected  by  the  act  of  attainder, 
John  Jacob  Astor  bought  the  claims  of  the  heirs,  and  it 
is  said  that  he  made  §500,000  by  the  speculation.  Col. 
Morris's  plate  and  furniture  had  been  sold  long  before  this, 
in  1793,  in  this  City,  under  the  direction  of  the  Commis^ 
sioners  of  Forfeiture.  As  a  reward  for  his  loyalty  to  the 
Crown,  Col.  Morris  received  compensation  from  the  British 
Government  for  all  his  losses.  When  Gen.  Washington 
visited  New  York,  in  1790,  after  his  election  to  the  Presi- 
dency, he  once  more  visited  the  old  Morris  house,  and  made 
this  entry  in  his  diary,  under  date  of  Saturday,  July  10  : 
"  Having  formed  a  party,  consisting  of  the  Vice-President, 
his  lady  and  son  and  Miss  Smith,  the  Secretaries  of  State, 
Treasury,  and  W ar,  and  the  ladies  of  the  two  latter,  with 
all  the  gentlemen  of  my  family,  Mrs.  Lear,  and  the  two 
children,  we  visited  the  old  position  of  Fort  Washington, 
and  afterward  dined  on  a  dinner  provided  by  Mr.  Marriner, 
at  the  house  lately  of  Col.  Roger  Morris,  but  confiscated, 
and  in  the  occupation  of  a  common  farmer."  After  going 
tli rough  several  hands,  the  house  was  sold  to  Stephen 


9 


Jumel,  who,  at  his  death,  left  it  to  his  widow.  Mma 
Jumel,  and  her  descendants  still  live  on  the  property. 
After  Stephen  Jumel's  death  Mine.  Jumel  married 
Aaron  Burr.  Burr  thus  became  interested  in  an  estate 
that  lay  hardly  more  than  a  gun-shot  away  from  Ham- 
ilton Grange,  the  country  seat  of  Hamilton.  In  1S34,  the 
oldest  living  son  of  Hamilton,  by  a  conveyance  made  to 
him  in  1834,  by  Madame  Jumel,  in  which  she  is  described 
as  Eliza  B.  Burr,  wife  of  Aaron  Burr,  became  interested 
in  the  property  on  which  Burr  and  his  wife  then  resided, 
and  by  a  subsequent  deed,  conveyed  it  to  a  trustee  for 
her  benefit  for  life,  and  upon  her  death  to  go  to  her  niece 
and  adopted  daughter,  Mary,  afterwards  the  wife  of  Nelson 
Chase. 

Upon  her  death,  in  1865,  there  began  a  series  of  the  most 
remarkable  lawsuits  in  legal  annals,  to  obtain  possession  of 
the  property  from  the  children  of  her  niece.  Mary,  who  were 
then  in  possession  of  the  property.  After  a  period  of  about 
fifteen  years,  and  the  expenditure  of  upwards  of  8300,000 
in  legal  expenses,  the  claimants  were  defeated  and  the 
title  firmly  established.  In  1  88<  I  a  partition  suit  was  brought, 
in  which  all  the  persons  having  any  interest,  or  claiming  any 
interest,  were  made  parties.  By  consent  of  all  the  parties, 
judgment  was  rendered  by  the  Supreme  Court,  in  June, 
1881,  directing  a  sale  at  public  auction,  and  distribution  of 
the  proceeds. 


By  virtue  of  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court,  ren- 
dered on  the  sixth  day  of  June,  1881.  in  the  action  of  par- 
tition brought  by  William  Inglis  Cbase  against  Nelson 
Chase  and  others,  all  the  property  of  the  estate  unsold,  con- 
sisting of  the  mansion,  together  with  the  tract  of  land 
surrounding  it,  containing  783  city  lots,  and  lying  between 


10 


159th  street,  St.  Nicholas  avenue,  Kingsbridge  Road;  175th 
street,  High  Bridge  Park,  and  Croton  Aqueduct ;  also,  the 
upland  east  of  the  aqueduct,  north  of  159th  street,  and 
water  lots  having  a  front  along  the  Harlem  River  of  about 
1,000  feet,  containing  about  ±00  city  lots,  together  with 
the  pre-emptive  right  to  the  land  under  water,  in  front 
thereof,  extending  out  to  the  new  bulkhead  line,  or  River 
street,  containing  about  the  same  area,  and  also  premises. 
Nos.  150  Broadway,  71  and  73  Liberty  street,  will  be  sold  at 
public  auction  at  the  Merchants'  Exchange  Salesroom,  No. 
Ill  Broadway,  New  York,  on  the  thirty-first  day  of  May, 
1882,  at  12  o'clock,  and  continued  on  each  succeeding  day 
until  all  the  property  is  sold.  % 

PHILO  T.  RUGGLES, 

(Referee, 

59  Liberty  street. 

ROE  &  MACKLIN, 

(Plaintiff's  Attorneys , 

156  and  158  Broadway,  New  York. 


